Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic School closing, diocese says

Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic School in East Allentown is closing at the end of the school year, according to the Diocese of Allentown. (CAMERON HART / THE MORNING CALL)

The Allentown Catholic Diocese announced Friday that Our Lady Help of Christians School in east Allentown will close its doors permanently at the conclusion of the school year.

Families of the 71 students enrolled at the 934 Hanover Ave. school were informed in an email that lagging enrollment was forcing the closure.

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The Rev. George Kochuparambil said enrollment at the K-8 school was down nearly 60 percent in the last five years. The school planned a $91,000 subsidy for this year but enrollment figures were so dismal $298,000 will be needed instead, according to an announcement by the diocese.

The financial squeeze is only made worse by dwindling availability of scholarship funds through the Education Improvement Tax Credit and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit, the diocese said.

Families who send children to school were provided information on the diocese’s 17 other Catholic elementary schools in the Lehigh Valley. They were told Catholic Education Continuation Grants are available for those in need.

Catholic schools have been closing and consolidating across the country for years. The Allentown Diocese shuttered Pius X Junior/Senior High School in Bangor and Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Roseto in 2015.

The church celebrated 90 years in the community last summer and members of the parish described a tightknit congregation.

“We ask for your prayers for the students, teachers, staff and parents who will be most directly impacted by the closing of our school,” Kochuparambil wrote in his letter to parents.

There were 5,178 Catholic elementary schools in the country in 2017, down from 5,889 in 2010, according to data compiled by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. Elementary school enrollment in that seven-year span dropped from 1.5 million to 1.3 million across the nation, according to the center.

Secondary schools have not suffered nearly as much with only four closing in the last seven years, bringing the total to 1,201 in 2017.